i was almost in a car accident yesterday.

[smack Down]

Originally posted by: rh71
You: 55mph
Them: 0mph
Difference: a loud bang

Perhaps you should've been going a lot slower... you can't trust other people, period.

Agreed passing stopped traffic with a 55mph speed difference is just stupid.

Of course people shouldn't have stopped on the freeway waiting to get to the exit. You are supposed to just go to the next exit if that happens.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: XZeroII

It is your responsibility to leave enough room between you and the car in front of you so that you can react to anything. Even if the OP was in a huge SUV, the car behind should have left some extra room so that he could react. I'm sure that there is a term for this, but the basic premise is that anytime you are driving, you should be going only as fast as is safe. If it is foggy and you can't see more than 10 feet in front of you, you need to slow down so that you have enough time to stop if anything appears 10 feet in front of you. If it is snowing, you need to leave enough distance and go only so fast so that you can stop if anything is in the road that you need to avoid. Basically, the circumstances are irrelevant. You always must leave enough room or ajust your speed so that you can avoid anything.

In this case, there was already a warning (the OP blew his horn and swerved) that something was not right ahead. There should have been plenty of time for the guy behind him to avoid the car pulling out. The buy behind the OP was definitely at fault for at least 50% of the accident.

Why are you bringing road conditions into this? That's an entirely separate issue.

Your idea that you must be expected to be able to react to anything at any time ignores reality. If you get blindsided by a red light runner, are you at fault for not avoiding them? 😕 You may have found a way to keep a 200 ft perimeter around your vehicle free of other cars, but the rest of us are driving around in reality. Based on the OP's description of what happened, there is no indication that the guy was following at a shorter distance than required by law or was not paying attention. When someone does something stupid and causes an accident, it is not the victim's fault for not being able to avoid it. :roll:

 

[JulesMaximus]

I almost won the lottery yesterday.

BTW-That's really stupid, not slowing down to pass stopped traffic. You should expect this and have slowed and/or moved over a lane.

 

[altonb1]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
how would there be any question of fault?
i don't think the guy needed a witness for law enforcement to figure out the moran pulled out in front of him

unless someone has a video we can review

Because fault is not always placed correctly, especially if there is any question about which vehicle is where.

 

[Sumguy]

Originally posted by: Whisper
The regularity with which I witness people doing mind bogglingly-idiotic things while driving has caused it to become fairly commonplace in my mind. For many years now, I've simply assumed that at any given instant, every driver around me is capable of great feats of stupidity.

Yup. I didn't do this until I witnessed my first accident.

Had just finished the SATs and I was driving back to my house after dropping off a friend. On the way back I see a white van take a sharp curve into the left side of a black Scion (the box looking type). I mean, the guy just did a dive into that car, it was definitely more than just a lane change angle.

Apparently he tried to burn two lanes onto a highway entrance ramp that he was about to miss. Had he not hit the car, he probably would have flipped over anyway. After that, I've been a little paranoid.